The Winter of 2020 Has Begun

I am very glad I had the foresight to get the snow tires put on my car at the end of September. The tire place is going to be a madhouse today. We had DD#2’s snow tires put on as soon as she got here last week. Seattle doesn’t get enough snow, really, to justify having snow tires, but she will need them to get back and forth over the passes if she wants to come home to visit.

This may all melt today and tomorrow as the temps are supposed to get back up into the 50s, but then it’s going to be cold again this weekend (high of 24 on Saturday with a low of 7). The pigs are fine out in their pen, covered in straw. The water lines are freezing, though, and that’s adding extra work for the husband.

It is what it is. We are all set for winter, and if the husband has to stop pouring concrete sooner than he planned to, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. He can spend the winter puttering in his new shop. The HVAC company is coming out today to install the heating system.

I need to get started on tomato sauce soon. That freezer has to be empty by Thanksgiving or so.

My list of sewing projects is growing. DSIL had asked for some masks and has tried a couple of prototypes. We are up to Mask 3.0, which is gray with black elastic (I am using the basic Deaconess pattern) and has a nose wire. He gave some of them to his father and brother to wear this week, and they liked them, too, so I am going to make a dozen for each of them.

I have a custom apron order. That is going to be fun to make.

This is the secret sewing project from last month that I couldn’t show you because it was part of DD#1’s shower gift:

Her MIL bought her a Kitchen Aid mixer, which provided a great excuse to make her a cover for it using the ByAnnie pattern I had just purchased. (The cover is a bit wrinkled because it was crunched up in a gift bag for a few days.) I was going to make one for my Kitchen Aid mixer, so it will be just as easy to make a third one for her MIL’s mixer, too. This was a fast sew once I got all the pieces quilted.

The Noon and Night quilt and pattern need to be finished. I am aiming for a January release of that pattern in the hopes that it will set the tone for a better new year than we had in 2020.

I have a stack of tops from last winter that need to be turned into quilts.

And I need to make the rest of the new insulated curtains. I am starting to feel like maybe this winter won’t be long enough to get everything done, LOL.